We would love to have you link up your School-Age Post (Ages 5 and up) about your learning week after school including Crafts, Activities, Playtime and Adventuresthat you are doing to enrich your children's lives after their day at school, home school, or on the weekend!

When linking up, please take a moment to comment on at least one post linked up before yours and grab our after school button to include a link on your post or site! By linking up, you're giving permission for us to share on our After School Pinterest Board and feature an image on our After School Party in the upcoming weeks!

Friday, June 27, 2014

This idea has been stuck in my head for awhile, ever
since I heard about how quilts were used to communicate to runaway slaves on
the Underground Railroad. Their patterns and blocks were a code, providing
direction, signifying safety, and issuing warnings (according to some historians).

Before my son and I played the game I made, we read the
perfect book to pair with this activity - The
Patchwork Path: A Quilt Map to Freedom by Bettye Stroud.

Having already read a biography on Harriet Tubman, my son
had a basic foundation of knowledge on the Underground Railroad. Stroud's book
filled in the rest - explaining how quilt blocks held messages for Hannah and
her father on their journey from a Georgia plantation to freedom in Canada.

Pictures of slaves who found freedom on the Railroad (I
printed images of Henry Bibb, Frederick Douglass, Josiah Henson, and Harriet
Tubman on cardstock and laminated)*

Medium-sized binder clips

Paper cutter to cut the game cards

Prep

Cut the pictures so that when they are inserted into a
binder clip, the faces are visible. These are your game pieces.

If necessary trim the white border (this depends on how your printer prints full-bleed pages) on your game board
pages so that the map image butts up against each other. Affix the pages with
tape on the back.

Cut the game cards apart and shuffle.

The Objective

Be the first to move your game piece along to Cleveland,
OH (the Underground Railroad station nicknamed "Hope").

How to Play

Each player picks their game piece and places it on the
start star. Everyone should be dealt three cards, which they turn over on the
table to look at. (Secrecy is not important.)

Before a player can move to the first space on the game
board and leave the plantation to begin their journey on the Underground
Railroad, they must play the Monkey Wrench card. If it is not in their hand,
they draw and discard either the card drawn or another card in their hand. Play
continues this way until they draw the Monkey Wrench card and can start their
journey. The same is true for the next quilt block space (Tumbling Blocks).

It may take awhile to get these cards. If you suspect
that your child will grow impatient quickly, print more of page 5 and 6 on the
PDF so there are more Monkey Wrench and Tumbling Block cards in the deck. Likewise,
if you have more than two players, additional cards will be necessary.

Anytime a space along the railroad has a quilt block next
to it, the player must play that very same quilt block card in order to move
there (and beyond it).

A player can move to any space not designated with a quilt
square by playing either a Log Cabin or Flying Geese card.

If a player has multiple Flying Geese or Log Cabin cards,
they can all be played on his/her turn (e.g. if two Log Cabin cards are played,
the player can advance two spaces). The player must always draw more cards to
maintain three cards in their hand.

BEWARE! If you draw the Drunkard's Path card, you must
move back 1 space. You cannot play any other cards during this turn. NOTE:
if you move back to a space before a quilt square space, you do not have to
replay that same quilt block card again to move forward. A Log Cabin or Flying
Geese card grants you passage forward.

If you run through the entire deck of cards, simply grab
the pile of cards already discarded or played and turn them over to reuse.

VARIATION: Use colored binder clips so each player has
multiple game pieces (i.e. all the game pieces for Bobby have blue binder clips, while Sarah has game pieces with red clips). Every time a Monkey Wrench card is
drawn, the player can begin moving a new game piece on the journey. Decide to
play for 45 minutes (or so) and when the time is up, see how many game pieces for
each player made it to Cleveland. The player to free the most slaves is the
winner.

This is a great strategy game that piques kids'
interest in history, codes, and folk art.

Got a kiddo that's interested in quilts? Or looking for a
math extension of this game? What about our Quilt
Square Fractions?

*Due to copyright protection, I'm not providing you with printable game pieces.
A Google search should result in MANY choices, though.

We would love to have you link up your School-Age Post (Ages 5 and up) about your learning week after school including Crafts, Activities, Playtime and Adventuresthat you are doing to enrich your children's lives after their day at school, home school, or on the weekend!

When linking up, please take a moment to comment on at least one post linked up before yours and grab our after school button to include a link on your post or site! By linking up, you're giving permission for us to share on our After School Pinterest Board and feature an image on our After School Party in the upcoming weeks!

Friday, June 20, 2014

Having just learned about air and atmospheric pressure
when we made a DIY
barometer, this lesson served as a great extension.

All you need is a ping pong ball and a working hair
dryer.

I had one son hold the hair dryer straight up, while it
blew cool air at the highest setting. Our other boy gingerly moved a ping pong
ball into the air stream.

WHOA! They were amazed to see the ball float in mid-air
without falling. Even more fun is when they moved the hair dryer at a slight
angle to see the ball still stay suspended!

Why it Works

The force of air from the hair dryer will push the ball
up, and the force of gravity will push it down. It will stay suspended at the
point where the force pushing up and gravity pulling it down are equal.

The reason the ball does not shoot out of the stream of
air, is air pressure. The air coming out of the hair dryer has a lower air
pressure than the air surrounding it. This keeps the ball within the column of
fast-moving air coming from the dryer. This principle was discovered by
Bernoulli in the 1700s, long before the first hair dryer was invented.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

We picked the perfect day to do this craft. Before the
day was even over, it had turned from sunny to cloudy to raining (and later the tornado sirens went off).

The science behind this craft is fascinating.

To start, I explained atmospheric pressure. That's
a pretty tough thing to visualize, but we had a little help from Bill Nye, the
Science Guy. (Check out some of his video clips on YouTube.)

Once we understood what pressure was and that it changes with the
weather, it was easier to understand how a barometer works.

Supplies

Wide-mouth glass jar without a lid

Deflated balloon

Rubberbands

Plastic drinking straw

Tape

Cardstock or posterboard

Pencil

Scissors

How to Make a DIY
Barometer

Cut the neck of your deflated balloon off, making a
straight cut about halfway down the balloon.

Stretch the balloon as tightly as possible over your
glass jar, so the latex is taught. You want to make an air-tight seal, so add a
rubberband or two to secure it.

Now trim a plastic drinking straw so it's about 6 or 7
inches in length. Then make angled cuts on both ends so each end has a point.

Using the corner of a small square of clear tape, attach
the flat part of one end of the straw to the balloon in the center of the jar.

The other end of the straw is your pointer.

Now fold a piece of heavyweight paper in fourths
lengthwise. Tape so it's in the shape of a triangle and stand on one end.

Take your barometer outside and let it acclimate. Set
your triangular paper up at the end of the pointer, and with a pencil record
where it touches and the weather conditions.

This is your baseline. Continue checking on the barometer
and making recordings of the weather conditions. As the weather changes, the
straw pointer will move up and down.

Once you have marks recorded for a variety of weather
conditions, you'll see a trend. When the weather is sunny, it points upwards.
When it's storming, it points downward. You can watch the DIY barometer and
begin to make predictions based on the gauge you made.

How it Works

If the air pressure inside the jar is heavier than the
air outside the jar, it will push up making the balloon convex (humped up), which
will tip the straw pointer downward. This occurs when the weather is rainy or
storming.

If the air pressure outside the jar is heavier, it will
press down on the balloon (making it concave), tipping the straw pointer
upwards. Expect this to occur when it's sunny.

We would love to have you link up your School-Age Post (Ages 5 and up) about your learning week after school including Crafts, Activities, Playtime and Adventuresthat you are doing to enrich your children's lives after their day at school, home school, or on the weekend!

When linking up, please take a moment to comment on at least one post linked up before yours and grab our after school button to include a link on your post or site! By linking up, you're giving permission for us to share on our After School Pinterest Board and feature an image on our After School Party in the upcoming weeks!

Friday, June 13, 2014

Spring and summer are lovely, except when the humidity is unbearable, the pollen count ridiculous, and the temperatures scorching. Some days you just need an indoor activity, preferably one where the kids can burn off ALL that energy.

We had one of those days.

And this is what we did: balloon tennis.

It couldn't be simpler. All you need is a latex balloon and tape as well as a disposable paper plate and jumbo wooden craft stick for each player.

Simply tape the craft stick to the paper plate to turn it into a paddle.

Blow up the balloon and if you want, use painters tape to make a line on the floor. Kids stand with the paddle on either side, lobbying the balloon back and forth, trying to keep it from touching the ground.

This may well be the cheapest gross motor fun my two boys have had together!

Rubber gloves - more than one pair for each person (the
more the better)

Rubber bands (2 for each shirt)

Plastic sheeting

Plastic cling wrap

Step 1

First we filled our stainless steel kitchen sink half
full of water and added 1/2 cup of Washing Soda. Since I make my own laundry
detergent, I had this handy. Stir so that the soda dissolves. The water will
still be murky.

Step 2

Add your pre-washed tee-shirts to the soda water mixture.
Let soak for at least five minutes. We had to run a quick errand, so ours
soaked for 30-40 minutes. From what I've been told, this step is essentially to
lock in the dye so you have brighter, more vivid colors.

Step 3

Squeeze the shirt(s) to remove as much excess water as
possible.

Step 4

Apply two rubber bands, twisting and re-looping them
around the shirts many times so they're tight. When finished, the shirt will be divided into
thirds.

Step 5

Mix your dyes. I used Tulip brand dye, adding about 1/2
tbsp. of each dye to 150 ml of water and a sprinkle of table salt. This amount of dye will make two child size tee shirts. Once inside
a small bottle with the cap on tightly, shake the bottles vigorously until all
the contents are combined. NOTE: Begin wearing gloves at this step. If the dye
splatters on your clothes, it will stain.

Step 6

Lay plastic sheeting (we used trash bags) on the ground outdoors.
We did this project in the garage to avoid the wind catching the corners of our
bags. Place the damp, rubberbanded shirt on top of the plastic.

Step 7

Apply the colors so the middle third of the shirt is left
white, dousing the top and bottom sections of shirt with the tie dye in the
applicator bottles. Use the rubberbands as a guide of where to stop applying
the dye. Don't worry if the dye seeps into the white area.

Step 8

Gently wring out excess dye from the two ends of the
shirt and wrap in plastic wrap. Lay in the hot sun (if possible). Let the dye cure into the fabric for as long
as 24 hours.

Step 9

The next day, remove the plastic wrap and while wearing
plastic gloves, take off the rubberbands and rinse the shirt until the water
runs clear.

Step 10

Launder the shirts in the washing machine. (Do this
without any other clothes in case any dye leaches into the water during
washing.)

We would love to have you link up your School-Age Post (Ages 5 and up) about your learning week after school including Crafts, Activities, Playtime and Adventuresthat you are doing to enrich your children's lives after their day at school, home school, or on the weekend!

When linking up, please take a moment to comment on at least one post linked up before yours and grab our after school button to include a link on your post or site! By linking up, you're giving permission for us to share on our After School Pinterest Board and feature an image on our After School Party in the upcoming weeks!

Featured Post

Four supplies - five if your kids are artistic - are all it takes to make artificial fish swim. This was loads of fun, which is my favorite...

Search This Blog

PERMISSIONS

Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational blog content may not be republished elsewhere without express written permission from the blog owner. Free printables are for your use at home and in the classroom, NOT for resale. If you have questions regarding this policy, contact deceptivelyeducational (at) gmail.com.

If you are a teacher and need to request access to my printables through Google Drive, use your personal email address. In many cases, your school blocks emails coming from outside their domain, thereby prohibiting me from granting you access and notifying you via email.